Thursday, March 31, 2011

'How to steal like an artist' has great advice about creativity

Here's a presentation called "How to steal like an artist (and 9 other things nobody told me). It's really interesting and — at least when I read it this morning — sometimes feels profound. It's by Austin Kleon and it's worth reading all of. Here's a taste:

Nothing is original. Ecclesiastes:That which has been is what will be, That which is done is what will be done, And there is nothing new under the sun.

You are a mashup of what you choose to let into your life.

The best way to collect ideas is to read. Read, read, read, read, read. Read the newspaper. Read the weather. Read the signs on the road. Read the faces of strangers. The more you read, the more you can choose to be influenced by.

The question every young writer asks is: “What should I write?” And the cliched answer is, “Write what you know.”

This advice always leads to terrible stories in which nothing interesting happens. The best advice is not to write what you know, it’s write what you *like*

As Flaubert said, “Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work.”

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About Howard

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Much of my work will continue to be collected here, but you can find my commentary more reliably at edge & flow or my Sacramento Bee SacConnect site, Quantum Dice. Most of my digital datastream is linked from here. You should also follow me on Twitter here.